I have over 25 years' experience in international financial journalism, working for the Thomson Reuters news agency in various countries, and had reporting assignments in many more, including China, Japan and the United States. I started as a cub reporter in the Netherlands and worked several years in the very competitive European news hub of London. Later, I became a chief correspondent for France and had a short secondment as European business editor. Based in Paris, I now run my own communication and content agency, M2Media.fr. I help clients with media and communication strategies, media training, market research, reputation studies and management due diligence. I studied general and business economics at the University of Amsterdam, where I obtained the equivalent of a Master's degree. In my spare time, I am an accomplished cook and blog about food and recipes on maitremarcel.com . I practice Swedish gym, jogging, cycling and enjoy traveling. I have been married to Maartje since 1989, after we met during cycling holidays in the Spanish Rioja area. We still regularly share wine and meals, as well as some athletic activities.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Russia Food Boycott Set To Hurt Europe Most In Lose-Lose Battle

The political war over Ukraine has escalated with trade boycotts. Russia has announced a ban on US food and European fruit and vegetable imports while the European Union followed the United States in sanctions on Russia.

The Russian government, by singling out fruit and vegetables, went for a soft spot.

The ban will hurt especially the growers of apples in Poland and fruit and vegetable growers in other countries close to Russia, and not yet the big European listed food groups such as DanoneDanone or NestleNestle.

But the large vegetable export sector of the Netherlands or France (tomatoes, etc), Spain (fruit), Greece (olives, cucumbers) will not escape the sanctions either.

The consequence would either be price dumping on the main western European markets, or calls for government subsidies to assist the stricken sectors. Or both.

This will upset an already tense situation in the food retail sector where farmers are asking for better margins from the big retailers such as CarrefourCarrefour, AholdAhold, Delhaize, Tesco, Aldi and others.

Lower prices could tip the European economy into deflation and cause headaches for the European Central Bank and reignite the debate between austerity hawks and stimulus doves amid European politicians on European economic and budget policies.

In Russia, consumers will not have access to the European goods and will likely face further price increases for foodstuff that will be in lower supply. More inflation is not what the Russian economy is waiting for and could stoke consumer protest in the country.

The issue of the future of Ukraine, and the demarcation line between the influence spheres of NATO and Russia, is very important in geopolitical terms.

Adding trade sanctions to a general war of words – on top of military strife in Ukraine itself – is a further escalation towards a more serious conflict that could end an unprecedented period of peace in western Europe, shortly after the commemorations of the first and second world war.

In the end, Russia needs its trade with Europe as much as the other way round. After years of rapid growth, Russia has turned into a bigger market than Germany for many goods.

President Vladimir Putin cannot as easily keep western goods away from the Russian people as his predecessors.

The current trade sanctions will hurt many firms in the short term and cause serious worries on the stock markets, but they cannot last for very long.

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